And, in a widely read book from 1967, André Soubiran, a doctor, reflected: “One wonders whether feminine psychology can accommodate freedom and the absence of men’s domination as well as we imagine.”27

Mona makes you realize how hard women had it. She has done extensive research on the witch hunts and trials and it shows. The subject matter is compelling, as it affects the lives of every woman who’s ever lived since the first witch was born. As a woman who’s experienced her unfair share of oppression, I jumped at the chance to read this book. Chollet, a Swiss journalist and author living and working in France, first published this book as Sorcières in French in 2018. This is its first English translation and is important for U.S. audiences' understanding of the European historical references vs. contextualized vis a vis Salem or the like.It is often in the more low-key elements of culture that seeds are planted that grow into the timber that supports the patriarchy, so Chollet offers many instances from popular culture to highlight just how society tries to "keep women in line." If you've read or watched some of the texts discussed, you'll probably want to revisit them. Not only to see what you may have overlooked but to also better understand how to actively engage with other texts in the future.

The brilliant feminist book “In Defense of Witches: Why Women are Still on Trial'' by Mona Chollet was released in January 2022. She discusses how the women who exist outside of the boundaries of patriarchal control are deemed to be villainous and morally corrupt. This extends from the witch-hunts of the 16th century to more current situations such as the anti-abortion laws the US faces, to the way in which women enter a “villain era”, which is really just self-love. Childless women must be evil witches In Defense of Witches has an interesting thesis, noted in its subtitle “The Legacy of the Witch Hunts and Why Women Are Still on Trial”. The them is essentially that the witch hunts were all about society’s (men’s) efforts to control women, and misogyny that continues today exists as remnants of those efforts. The book examines this on several levels, in different areas—historically, socially, in the workplace, in specific fields—making many valid, well-documented points. This book is heavier on the feminism aspect than the witchcraft aspect so if you’re coming into this looking more for the history of witchcraft, there are other books that will do this better. While it does discuss it, it is predominantly in the introduction. However, as someone who is two of these three archetypes, and with each year growing closer to the third, this book was interesting, but at times not exactly eye opening. I’ve experienced some of the passive-aggressive commentary myself, thankfully not from my family.She also tells the story of Flutter who lived alone on a mountain not caring what the local people thought. She was a bringer of positive news for her little village. And as an embodiment of female power and resistance to male domination, what better figure than the witch? Since Chollet’s childhood, the word “has had a magnetic hold on me,” she writes. “Something about it fizzes with energy. The word speaks of a knowledge that lies close to the ground, a vital power, an accumulated force of experience that official sources disdain or repress.” The first two chapters focus heavily on when women choose not to have children and how society treats this choice. The third looks at the differences between how men and women age, or how society treats them differently as they age. These sections were clear, organized, focused on the topics. I was occasionally reminded that the book was written and published in Europe, as it would refer to resources in French, and mention how things were in America. Chollet’s discussion about the “childless woman” falls perfectly into this category of female power and is unfortunately just as relevant as it was 500 years ago. Women who disrupted the patriarchal structure by forgoing married life or children were viewed with contempt, labelled as witches, and excluded from society. The vehement condemnation of the childless woman seems to be more about the women who dared to take control of their own lives than anything else.